Course Descriptions

ARTL 1000: Introduction to Arts Leadership

This course is an introduction to the field of arts administration, its history, current business practices and career opportunities.  We will focus on the leadership techniques needed to be an arts administrator, concentrating on management issues and business operations. Various aspects of the arts such as staffing, financing, economic impact and application, marketing, fundraising and governance are covered.

ARTL 2000: Financial Strategies in the Arts

Finance is the art and science of managing money. This course provides an understanding of the financial system, its functions, and available alternatives for obtaining money in an arts environment. Discussions will focus on understanding and interpreting financial information for the stakeholders of arts organizations, and the types of financing that apply to nonprofit organizations. This course will apply the tools of the financial manager as a decision-maker of an organization.

ARTL 2100: Marketing the Arts

Students will analyze an arts, entertainment, media, or event organization within its environmental context to determine how to position it in the marketplace. In this course, students will develop an understanding of the consumer and market, choose the proper research techniques to solve problems, determine the appropriate promotional techniques to develop relationships with customers, and develop a complete and integrated marketing plan for an organization.

ARTL 3000: Law and the Arts

This course will enable students to better understand legal issues in businesses of the arts and entertainment industries and to recognize where legal problems could arise. We will look at copyright and other intellectual property rights, contracts, licensing agreements, first amendment issues, agency agreements, and the formation of partnerships and corporations.

ARTL 3100: Resource Development for Arts Organizations

This course provides an overview of basic fundraising techniques for non-profit arts organizations. Strategies for raising funds from individuals, corporations, foundations, and government funding sources will be reviewed and analyzed. Students will look at methodologies for developing a complete fundraising plan.

ARTL 4000: Public Policy & Advocacy in the Arts

Students will be introduced to the purpose, principles, and practices of advocacy as part of the democratic process, particularly as it applies to non-profit arts organizations. We will review the political structures within arts advocates' work, with an emphasis on Washington state government. Students will be armed with the tools to participate effectively in making the arts a public policy priority and will learn how to use lobbying to defend the interests of non-profit and commercial arts organizations. Students will be linked with organizations and individuals engaged in arts advocacy, and provided with an opportunity to lobby at the state government level.

ARTL 4900: Arts Entrepreneurship/ Senior Synthesis

This senior capstone course integrates the university core curriculum with personal and professional development in the arts. Students will determine the suitability of starting and running a business of their choice; measure their expectations with practical aspects of running a business; formulate a step-by-step approach for conceiving, executing, and launching a business venture; and develop skills in finance, employee relations, and marketing. We will focus on the concepts, skills, expertise, information, attitudes, controls, and rewards of entrepreneurship. Students will learn to recognize opportunities and act on them. Prerequisite: senior standing and eligibility for graduation.

ARTL 4950: Arts Leadership Internship

The Arts Leadership Internship integrates and applies the arts administration theories being learned in course work with the realities of the workplace. This internship will provide students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in resource development, arts marketing, audience development and general management to actual positions within Puget Sound arts organizations.